National's!

Well after a late arrival back from the Sudbury Canada Cup it was time to rest up and get a couple good rides in before the big race at Hardwood this past weekend. I can definitely say that I had an incredible time and it was an amazing experience to be around so many great people at such a well organized event.

So I'll start out with the Thursday night where I fought my way through rush hour traffic in order to catch the end of the all new Eliminator National Championship race. It was a really cool event consisting of a short approximately 2 min course where 4 competitors duked it out around tight corners and over tough obstacles to finish in the top 2 in order to make it to the next round. It was also the first time it has ever been held at National's so I was excited to see who would take the inaugural title this year. I really wish I had been competing in it as well but I just couldn't justify taking both days off work since I had just started a little over a month ago.

I made it just in time for the semi-final and saw my good friend and teammate Peter Disera (super fast junior) advance to the final round to compete for the title! Then it was time for the women's final where I saw Jean-Ann Berkenpas, riding my former bike sponsor, Xprezo, to the Women's National Eliminator championship in a very tight battle.

Peter Disera on '3 rox'

Now finally, the men's final was going to take place in a pretty stacked heat with former u23 National Champ, Leandre Bouchard; Mitch Bailey; Peter and Patrick Martin. It was a crazy fast start with a close battle for position into the first corner, it was pretty back and forth the whole race and everyone managed to stay upright on the jumps luckily. Then as they went out of sight everything went silent until we saw Leandre come around the corner with a sizeable lead to take the first ever Canadian National Eliminator title for the men. What an awesome event and I hope it continues more and I can participate in a few as they come up.

After the event I headed over to the OCA house, where there was a chef who prepared everyone a delicious meal and I got to hang out with a lot of cool people discussing the upcoming race and having an all around great time. Geoff Kabush definitely won the diving competition with his massive style jumps into their backyard swimming pool. There were also a lot of good jokes thrown around by the 3 rox team and it seemed like they were a pretty tight team who really got along well. This weekend was already turning out to be super fun and relaxing and I was really enjoying it so far.

The next day I arrived at the race course around noon in order to get a couple laps in and nail my lines so I'd make an attempt to ride perfect for the race on Saturday. As it turned out I got to ride with my good buddy Chris Fruetel and we ripped off a couple good laps even getting a little race intensity in to know how it felt to go fast on the course and test ourselves over the crazy new obstacles they had put in. Lucky for us we just made it to our cars before a massive storm rolled in and took out a bunch of trees and the power. The course was already basically a giant sand trap so it could definitely use a little rain anyway.

After enjoying some time back home up in Muskoka with the family and chilling out, it was now time for my biggest race of the year. I made sure everything was dialed on my bike and got a good warmup in before rolling up to the line for my callup. Once again I got another decent callup this week since I had done fairly well in the first few Canada Cups and so I was on the second row for the start, which really helped put me in a good position. 

The u23 men start! Courtesy of Joe Bailey

Off the start I tucked in behind the leaders and tried to conserve whatever energy I could by drafting behind their wheels. Other than one small brake check where the trail narrowed a bit it was a pretty smooth start and I was feeling pretty decent at that point. I lost a few spots right before the singletrack and then got caught behind someone who was caught on top of a log pile and so this set me back a bit but I tried to work with what I had and make back the positions. I felt like I was riding smooth and was flying through the singletracks that I had grown up riding, especially coffee run, which I always have a ton of fun on. When it came to the climbs though I felt as if I just didn't have the speed and people seemed to be riding away from me a little too easily. I tried my best to stay close but it was hard to close the gaps and so it started to extend out with each lap. I found myself riding with a couple guys for the last 2-3 laps and we worked together on the flats and pushed each other up the climbs. Finally on lap 5 I lost contact on a climb and the three of us then spread out on the main climb of the course after boneshaker. I tried my best to rally back but I just didn't have it in me and rolled in for 19th place, my best finish yet at National's but not quite what I had hoped for.

I felt as if I was riding smooth and had no crashes or mechanical issues so I could draw a few positives from the race but I will definitely still have to improve my fitness to keep up with the fastest guys in the category. Luckily I have a week or so to chill out after my peak race and then it will be back to it in order to get ready for the last couple Ocups at Highland Nordic Centre and the new venue Horseshoe Resort!

On the Sunday it was the regular Ocup categories racing as well as the team relay event, which I had entered with a team consisting of Griffin Lambert from Bracebridge (on Cycle Solutions), Heather Gray (really fast girl on CS) and my good friend Chris as well. I decided to take the first leg of the race and it was a shortened version of our elite course that we had raced the day before. We started off super fast as I was in my top gear standing up just in order to stay on the crazy pace that is per usual for guys like Kelsey Krushel and Tyson Wagler. I put worked as hard as I could to stay on their wheel and managed to get by Tyson just before Coffee Run but had lost the lead group where Kelsey was dictating the pace. 

Style Points! Courtesy of Pedal Magazine

A couple more guys came around me throughout the course including my coach, Peter Glassford, who had just won the singlespeed 'National Champs\ that morning and still managed to pull off the second fastest lap in our group. I was hurting and definitely feeling the race from the day before in my legs, especially with the speed of that lap. Our team ended up pulling off a respectable 7th place, which is where we were after lap 1 so even though we gained and lost a couple spots we finished off how we started. Very fun race and definitely something I want to take part in every year from now on.

To cap off the weekend it was then time for a post-Nationals group ride with a bunch of fast guys from all over Canada. It was lead by local legend, Andrew Watson, and we rode some fast and flowy trails at nearby 'Sugar Bush'. Great group of people and definitely made some new friends after the weekend and got to see so many old ones. It turned out to be a very action-packed weekend with lots of racing, riding and good times had. Stoked that Nat's are coming back again next year for 2014!

Sudbury Canada Cup

Back to it again after a busy month of starting a new engineering job for Megtec Turbosonic in Waterloo and  also getting myself ready for the two biggest races of the year for me: the Canada Cup at Sudbury and National's at Hardwood.

First I'll start off with this past weekend where we made the long journey up to Sudbury for the 3rd Canada Cup in the series, which also doubled as Ontario Cup #4. It was a long 5 hour drive from Waterloo but luckily I was accompanied by three great traveling companions, Jason, Jeff and Alex. It was a tough fight through cottage country traffic for Alex and I to get to Innisfil to meet Jason at our first stop, but then we were able to make a nice relaxing stop at Jeff's cottage on Six Mile Lake, just up the 400.

We were originally going to push on that night and arrive super late at Charlie's house near Sudbury but realizing we were about 2.5 hours away and it already being 9pm, we decided to crash there for the night and boy are we glad we did. Went for a nice sunset boat ride then packed it in to get up early for the preride the next day.

We got to the course at around 11am and since my course was only about 6km for this race I decided I would do 3 practice laps rather than the usual 2. I also didn't know the course as well since it is a new venue so I wanted to get my lines worked out well for the race. Ripped a few laps with the Two Wheel guys where they showed me up on their dualies (full suspension bikes) and then I decided that I was ready to face the 6 lap race ahead the next day!

Now that we were done practicing, we decided to head over to the cliffs near Laurentian University to cool down and relax with the 'Wolf Pack', who are all local riders from the Sudbury area. It turned out to be a really nice beach, located right on campus and we decided to swim over to the cliffs, not that we needed any more exercise the day before the big race.

After a nice relaxing afternoon we headed back to our friend Charlie's beautiful house by the lake and were treated to an amazing pre-race dinner that was definitely a group effort to prepare. We then had a nice group bike prep session after dinner and made sure our bikes were primed to go for the race. It was surely a great way to spend the weekend hanging out with the Wolf Pack, they are awesome people and all sure know how to rip on a mountain bike!

On Sunday, I woke up bright and early to make it out to watch the 9:30am race where a few friends, including Jeff, were going to be tearing up the 8km course. After fueling up on some eggs and sweet potato for the big day it was time to head over to the course. Once we arrived I tried my best to chill and stay out of the sun as much as possible to keep cool before the race. Only gave myself a 20 min warmup since I knew that it was already hot enough to not need much of one at all, just a few short sprints to prep for the fast start.

This was going to be the first time that I would get a decent callup at a Canada Cup so I was pretty pumped. I was placed in 'pen #1' this time as compared to Tremblant where I was almost at the complete back of the field. Plate #24 had me just a few rows back and already gave me a decent advantage on the start. Off the gun I was able to sit in and draft the mainly downhill/flat section, narrowly avoiding a crash where I noticed Watson sitting on his top tube to my left and heard that Matt F's bike went airborne. Gave a quick punch to get good position in the singletrack and was able to enter it in the top 20, which really helped given I wouldn't have to face a huge bottleneck.

Tried my best to hold the wheel in front and was feeling good for the first half of the course and when we hit the feed zone for the first time I could see the leaders just ahead of me. Slowly I realized that I was not going to be able to hold this pace and I was riding above my limit for sure. This became more apparent when we hit the long climb on the course and I felt as if I was falling backwards. Limped through the rest of the first lap and tried my best to hold on to riders coming by but it took a while to get some legs under me again.

Struggling in the heat. Courtesy of Lori Bailey

Ended up riding with Jon Winfield for the remainder of the race as we put the hurt down on each other and this definitely helped get me through the finish to have someone there to push me. On the final climb, Jon was able to put in a good sprint and I lost his wheel and I struggled to recover but was unable to catch back by the end. I was a hurting unit by the end, my lower back had seized up and I felt like absolute garbage after racing almost 2 hours in the heat.

After a relaxing cool down I got some food in me and was able to feel a little better. I was pretty happy with the race and even though I wasn't able to hold my starting pace for very long I was glad to be able to mix it up with the leaders for a bit. Definitely has me psyched for National's next weekend!

On the drive back, Jeff's parents once again provided us with an amazing dinner at their cottage and we got a refreshing swim in the lake. Then we pushed through for the long drive through cottage traffic back to Waterloo, arriving home at almost 1am. What an awesome weekend, can't wait for Hardwood!